I don't know if our hostess knows that she was linked, quoted and criticized on www.bloggingblue.com today.

"In her own commentary, Althouse wrote, “On top of that, I’d say get rid of the recall mechanism altogether,” a notion that’s troubling to me.

Recalls are one of the mechanisms the citizenry has in place in order to hold their elected officials accountable, and removing the option of recalling elected officials does nothing but remove one layer of accountability from our government. While I appreciate the argument that recalls can be abused, leading to a perpetual cycle of regular and recall elections, the recall process (at least here in Wisconsin) does not lend itself to frivolous recalls. Gathering the number of signatures required to trigger a recall election is no small feat, especially statewide, as the individuals who tried to recall former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle learned.

While I’m open to arguments about how Wisconsin’s recall process can be modified to make it more effective, efficient, and free from abuses, getting rid of the recall mechanism altogether is a terrible idea.

I'm going to argue that we seem to have totally lost sight of the fact that by design the lower houses - the 'representatives' with their shorter terms - are supposed to be the steering wheel of the states and the federal government.

The problem as I see it, at least with the federal government, is that the representatives don't want to go on record as having made difficult choices in the design of the legislation, so they leave huge empty boxes for the administration to fill in later.

Which results in a transfer of power to the office and branch of government that comes up for election typically every 4 years.

So, I argue that we don't need recalls, or shorter terms for governors.

Rather, we need to use the offices they way they were designed (rapid changes through the lower house) and force our legislators to write the laws to a greater detail, leaving less leeway and power to the administrator.

I want to know why garage has been so quiet about Tom Barrett's wife using the Milwaukee Public School system email system for political purposes! garage, garage, where or where are you? Or is it "nothing to see here. Move on, move on."

Now Barrett's worried about someone using his wife for a political hatchet job but he had no problem with people going after Scott Walker's KIDS!